the groundhog day project

Roger Ebert tells me Hannah and Her Sisters is the best Thanksgiving film. I have never seen it. I mentioned a while back that I am not the biggest fan of Woody Allen. I’ve seen a few of his films, I can appreciate what he does, but I’m just not all that enamored with it... with them. Similarly—and I think I share this with Ebert—I can appreciate what Peter Hedges is doing in Pieces of April even though I think the final product is flawed. In a way, it might be because that film is inherently flawed that it is also quite endearing. Like family, like Thanksgiving, the twisted heart within the happy occasion is the horribleness possible when family get together in large numbers. None of us is perfect. And, family or not—blood being thicker than water and all that—get us together and insist on hanging out as if our relations have not been strained time and time again by arguments and disagreements, as if some of haven’t disowned others (or wanted to), as if we haven’t had numerous in...

I’ve only ever watched Annie Hall once all the way through. All my fellow film fans may gasp with horror now. I’m watching Annie Hall (and Manhattan ) before When Harry Met Sally.. (and I have been getting that title wrong, leaving out the ellipses) tonight. If for no other reason, I’m doing this because others compare them. Roger Ebert (1989), for example, refers to Harry and Sally as “two people who would be characters in a Woody Allen movie, if they weren’t so sunny.” James (1989), who calls the film “a perfectly pleasant Woody Allen wannabe, full of canned romance,” compares the details; she begins her review with the following: The opening credits feature Woody Allen’s trademark white letters on a black background [because, apparently, white on black titles are unique in film], with a jaunty version of “It Had to Be You” on the soundtrack. The score is rich with Gershwin, the camera infatuated with Manhattan, the dialogue obsessed with love, sex, and death. Altogether, Rob Re...